A PECULIAR CASE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1922, Page 1

A PECULIAR CASE

!■• AUCKLAND, Fob. 21. Thomas Fearnon was found guilty at the Supreme Court to-day of stealing £35 from the per,son of Alfred William McGuire. A sensational development arose when Maude Isabella Crookes, a divorced woman, living with Fearnon, stated that her evidence in the lower court and her statement to the police were a. mistake. She had been drink- | ing, and a certain amount of jealousy ; caused her to accuse Fearnon of making a statement to her to the effect that a man at the Soldiers’ Club was ill and I that they had arranged to get his money and divide. Judge Stringer- in summing up, said the jury would have to consider why tlie woman’s first stntment coincided with the facts related by other witposses. Counsel for the defence asked for a case to be stated for the Appeal Court, to determine whether the depositions' piade by Brooks and her statement to the police should have been admitted. A third point was that the witness had been improperly treated as hostile. Counsel also asked leave to apply to the Appeal Court for a new trial, on the ground that the verdict, was against the weight, of evidence. His Honor said he’d give a decision on the first two points to-morrow.